Sweet Italian Sausage Calzone

With Fall approaching and school starting back, I know that everyone wants easy weeknight recipes. This one was so yummy, easy and you can really customize it however you'd like. The husband ate two servings and said it was as good as any restaurant!

Sweet Italian Sausage Calzone
- 1 pkg pre-made pizza dough (I used Trader Joe's, but Pillsbury also has a yummy version in a can)
- 1/2 jar of your favorite pizza sauce
- 1 cup of shredded mozzarella
- 1 cup of sliced mushrooms
- 1/2 of a sweet onion chopped
- meat of choice (I used 2 links of Trader Joe's pre-cooked sweet Italian chicken sausage sliced and it was delish!)
- Seasoning of choice (salt, pepper, oregano, basil, garlic powder, etc.)
- EVOO

Directions
1. Pre-heat oven to 350 (or whatever temp is specified on your pkg of pizza dough).

2. Roll out your pizza dough according to directions on a floured (not greased) baking sheet or pizza stone.

3. Spoon a couple scoops of your favorite pizza sauce on half of the flattened dough and spread with the bottom of your spoon. Sprinkle with about a handful of cheese over the sauce.

4. Heat a splash of EVOO in a saute pan and add the mushrooms, onions and sausage. Cook for about 5-7 min or until just slightly carmelized.

5. Spoon the cooked sausage, mushroom, onion mixture onto side of the dough covered in sauce and cheese. Sprinkle with seasonings of your choice. I used crushed red pepper, garlic powder, oregano and dried basil.

5. Top the sausage, mushroom, onion mixture with a couple more spoonfuls of pizza sauce and another handful of cheese.

6. Fold over the other half of the dough and seal the edge by pressing down firmly. Cut a couple slits into the top so the steam can release. Brush some EVOO on top and sprinkle with any seasonings you'd like. I used, garlic powder, dried basil and oregano.

Bake at 350 (or whatever temp your dough requires) for 15-18 min. The top should be slightly brown and the inside will be bubbling. Serve with the remaining pizza sauce for dipping and any green veggie or side salad. This will make one large calzone that serves approximately 4-6. Enjoy!

#PreBabyBucketList

If you follow me on Instagram, you've noticed a plethora of random house projects popping up recently. Reason being, I am finally getting to start on the nursery... but in order to do that, we had to complete several other check-list items. No, we don't have a baby yet- but the fact that it could happen any day is sending my nesting into overdrive. You can see for yourself..

Back in June, our master bedroom closet shelves collapsed and we've just now gotten around to fixing it thanks to my crazy busy summer. While I would've loved a California closet from the container store, this is probably the absolute last room in the house where I want to actually spend money. So the obvious solution?

 Yes, the husband braved Ikea with me on a Sunday and also got a much-deserved cinnamon roll. I mean a cart full of miscellaneous Swedish parts just screams easy right? Exactly. Well four days and two trips to Home Depot later, we got our closet. Somewhere in Sweden, I picture a room full of furniture designers laughing together over a bowl of meatballs at the fact that none of their products come with screws or any hardware whatsoever and that leaves Americans scratching their heads at the pamphlet full of numbered pictures they like to call instructions. Nonetheless, our closet is still standing almost two weeks later.

Next on the list was to convert our guest room closet into an office nook which we've affectionately named the Cloffice. This allowed us to move the desk out of our current third bedroom to make room for our baby and everything he or she will most certainly accumulate over the coming months. I'm pretty happy with the result. Are there way cuter options on Pinterest? Of course. Am I happy with the fact that I only spent about $25 on supplies? Absolutely.

Next in line was really something that I've been wanting for several years now and we figured we'd better do it now, because this would be the last thing we'd actually want to spend money on once baby joins the fam. New bedding for our bed. After doing lots of looking online, I've determined that I really just am a Pottery Barn girl at heart. Their style fits me perfectly and you really can't argue with the quality. So I drove down to my local PB (city girl perk) and headed straight to the sale area. Low and behold, I was able to snag this whole set (duvet cover, two standard shams and two euro shams for around $150). By PB standards that's a great deal. Actually it's still on sale on their website here.

Last but not least, our first nursery item came in the mail yesterday. A pouf ottoman from Walmart. Yes, you read that right. These bad boys that are all the rage on Pinterest these days can cost you a pretty penny from various retailers (I'm talking $500 or more), but Walmart has a decent selection ranging in price from $30-$100.  I'm sorry, but unless it's made by leprechauns and filled with gold, it's not worth spending that much for something to put your feet on while rocking a screaming baby. The one we got was $30 and it really is larger than I thought it'd be and seems to be pretty good quality. So here is your first peek into what will be baby O's room. We haven't painted the walls yet, but that is next on this list...

Bruschetta Chicken with Avocado

This summer has been so crazy busy that it's been a while since I cooked posted a recipe. This was one we had a while back that was so so yummy! I would definitely make this again when we have people over because it looks super fancy pants but was really pretty easy.

Bruschetta Chicken with Avocado (adapted from here)
1 cup balsamic vinegar
EVOO
salt & pepper
1/2 cup pre-made bruschetta topping
1 avocado, sliced
4oz mozzarella cheese, sliced (or 1 cup shredded)
baby spinach or pasta, for serving

Directions 
1. Pour balsamic vinegar into a small saucepan then bring to a boil. Turn heat down to medium then simmer and reduce until vinegar is thick enough to coat a spoon, about 20 minutes. (Vinegar will continue to thicken while cooling.) Set aside to cool.

2. Place oven rack in top position then preheat broiler.

3. Brush chicken breasts with extra virgin olive oil then season with salt and pepper on both sides.

4. Add EVOO to a large skillet (I also added some chopped garlic) and heat to medium-high heat. Add chicken breasts and cook for 4-5 minutes a side, or until no longer pink in the center.

3. Line a baking dish with foil and spray with non-stick spray and transfer chicken.

4. Top chicken with a scoop of bruschetta mixture, 3-4 slices avocado and 1 slice mozzarella each. Broil until cheese has melted and drizzle with the balsamic reduction.

I served it over spinach alongside some fresh avocado as more of a salad but this would also be amazing over pasta. Enjoy!

Waiting

So you know those bloggers out there that make some big exciting announcement and then seem to drop off the face of the earth? Yeah, me neither... But seriously... I've been held captive the past couple weeks by camp preparation and then camp itself. No worries though, friends, because camp is over for this year which means I am now in full baby mode. We have officially completed our home study, which means that the government now authorizes us to become parents. Shocking, I know. If everyone out there had to go through this process in order to have biological children, I can guarantee you there would be half as many people on this planet.. just saying. But nonetheless... it is finished. This entire process up until now has been a series of tasks and lists. Now that all of the paperwork has been filed, every fingerprint taken and every box checked... our next step is quite possibly the hardest. We wait. We wait for the right case to come along that will ultimately bring our baby home. Once we get a case, we wait to see if the birth mother chooses us. Once she chooses us, we wait until the due date- all the while praying she doesn't change her mind. But the point of the story is... now, we wait. Everything up until now has been task-oriented. I've been able to file our completed paperwork neatly in the labeled sections of my teal patterned expandable file folder and cross items off the list in my iPad notes. I've never been good at waiting. Waiting for Christmas. Waiting in line at Disney World. Waiting for a table in a restaurant. Waiting at the doctor's office. I hate to wait. But all the while, I can say with full confidence that I know the Lord is at work. He is at work in me individually. He is at work in our family. He is at work in our birth mother, though we've yet to meet. I know that today, we are one day closer to meeting our baby than we were yesterday. And tomorrow will be one day closer than today. Until then, we will wait.

FAQ's

We are overwhelmed with the love and support that has poured in over the last couple weeks since we've shared our exciting news with all of you- so a huge THANK YOU to everyone out there!

Now, I have to apologize at my lack of blogging since then. Between adoption prep, camp prep and being out of town- our summer is flying by! I've been meaning to do a post like this since the last one, because we've been getting a lot of the same questions about our adoption process from so many people. We are so grateful for all of the encouragement we've received! Here is some more info on the excitement that will be Oprea party of 3 (or more??)

Q. Where are you exactly in the process?

A. We have our final pre-placement home study visit this Sunday (July 14). Once our social worker writes our report after the visit, we will be "ready on paper". This means by government standards, we are ready to be parents (shocking I know). Now, all we need is the right case to come along and we will say yes to it. Once we say yes, it gets put in the birth mother's hands and she would have to choose us. If she chooses us, this means we are matched and we begin counting down to her due date!

Q. Who is sending you these "cases"?

A. We are working with an adoption consultant here in Atlanta who serves as a liaison between us and agencies all across the country. We have kindly referred to her as our baby broker, because that is really the role she is fulfilling. She is not an agency herself, but she helps us each step of the way and assists with streamlining the otherwise very confusing process. When these agencies across the US have birth-mothers looking for adoptive families, they will email her the specifics and she will email us along with her other clients. If we see one that fits our criteria, we reply to it and send our profile book to the agency to show the birth-mother. If she likes us enough, she chooses us. Because we get up to several cases a week, the odds are in our favor of being matched in the near future.

Q. What age child will you be adopting?

A. Our consultant works primarily with newborn cases. This means we will hopefully meet our baby in the hospital on day one. We have said that we are open to multiples, so we don't know for sure if we will have one baby or possibly twins!?

Q. Where in the US are you adopting from?

A. Our consultant works primarily in states that have a short revocation period. This is the period of time the birth mother has following birth to change her mind. Georgia is 10 days, so she doesn't really facilitate adoptions here. The states she mostly works in have revocation periods of 72 hours or less. Texas, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Arizona, Oklahoma just to name a few. There are several others as well. While this is not as likely as news stories and Lifetime movies would like us to believe, it can happen so she tries to minimize the risk as much as possible.

Q. What do you still need help with?

A. We have been blessed by all of you so much that we are 40% of the way to reaching our goal! God is continuing to blow us away with His faithfulness through your support. We know that He will continue to carry us through this process and will continue to provide until our baby is home. We also are still very much in need of items for our yard sale. It will be held the weekend of August 3 at the K-Life House here in Atlanta. If you have items around your house that you would like to donate, you can email me at stephanie.oprea@gmail.com.

Q. Why does this process cost so much?

A. Different states have different fees based on costs associated with the agency, legal fees, medical expenses, cost of living, etc. Because this can be such a confusing process, we are also working with an adoption consultant whom several of our friends have used and had great experiences with. She's been in business for 20+ years and has trusted relationships with agencies across the country which help ensure that our inexperience doesn't cost us time or money.

Q. What can we be praying for?

A. This is the most heartwarmingly important question! Pray for wisdom as we read through these emailed cases and that we would recognize when the right case comes along. Pray for our birth mother that is somewhere out there carrying our baby- possibly making the tough decision to keep the baby, give him/her up for adoption or even end the pregnancy all together. Pray that she would feel peace with her decision to place her baby for adoption. Lastly, pray that we would continue to raise the support which will allow us to financially bring our baby home.

Q. So does this mean that you've given up on having biological children?

A. This is probably the biggest unspoken question that everyone has but doesn't want to ask. I can honestly say that we are more hopeful now than we've ever been that we will have biological children one day.  If you recall in my last update, my genetic results in relation to my translocation were sent off to a geneticist in New York who analyzed many different factors to give us some more specific answers vs. the textbook 50/50 answer we had originally. Well my personal risk for recurrent miscarriages came back at 38%. Every woman has a 20-25% chance of miscarriage for any given pregnancy. The fact that my risk is only slightly elevated above that means that the odds are definitely in our favor! We learned this before we even started the adoption process and took it as complete affirmation that now is the time that God is calling us to adopt and we are very hopeful of biological children down the road. Adoption is our first choice right now. We never want any child of ours to feel that they are anything less than that.

Thank you all so much for  the sweet words, texts, notes and emails that we've received from all of our friends, family and complete strangers who happen to care about our story. God is continuing to amaze us with His faithfulness and we can't wait to meet the little one (or ones??) that He has planned for our family!

The one with the Announcement

Hi friends and family!

If you've been a follower of this blog for a while, it is no surprise to you that the past two years have been heartbreaking for us, as we’ve tried to expand our family. If you're a new reader, you can read our story by clicking the link above. Through it all, the Lord has shown His love and faithfulness with the help of your kind words, actions and prayers. We know that our story is not over and He is taking care of our babies until we are able to meet them one day. We are confident that He has big plans for our family and are more hopeful than ever that our family will continue to grow.

It is with excitement that we want to share with you the news that we are adopting!

We began working with an adoption consultant in Atlanta back in April and are pursuing domestic newborn adoption. Because she works with agencies across the country, we hope to welcome our baby to our family by Christmas! We want to share this wonderful news with all of you, because we are asking you to link arms and support us through this process.

1. We are asking for your prayers. Pray that the process would continue to go smoothly. Pray that we would have discernment when reading through cases that we receive through email. Lastly, pray for our birth mother that we have yet to meet that could very well be carrying our baby right now.

2. We are asking for financial support. As domestic newborn adoption expenses can cost upwards of $40,000 depending on the state and agency, we have a goal to raise $25,000. If you would like to help us achieve our goal, there are several ways you can give. We can guarantee that 100% of the funds we raise will go towards bringing our baby home.

- We have set up an online giving link on this blog through PayPal that can be found on the right sidebar.

- If you are local, you can donate any gently used items to our yard sale (and shop our yard sale!) that we are going to have the weekend of August 3rd. Email me at Stephanie.oprea@gmail.com if you are interested in donating items and I will send out separate updates about how to help with this.

The past two months have been a blessing as we’ve learned the many different parallels of this adoption process to our spiritual adoption by our Heavenly Father though Jesus. We are so excited about bringing a baby home and are confident that the Lord already knows the baby that is meant to join our family. We know that He is calling us to this and He will see us through it. Thank you for celebrating what God is doing in our family. We look forward to updating you with happy news along the way.

Trinidad Video

During our week in Trinidad, I was our resident photographer and shot some video as well. The one and only Addie Jones (K-Life Women's Staff) put together this fabulous video that really gives a good look into what our trip looked like. Enjoy!